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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived) / Grouping existing cont...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

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Posted on by Community Member Microsoft Employee

Hello,

My first question on this forum :)

My question centers on grouping contacts that exist on our CRM already and can be identified by an unique identifier (Customer number).

While they do exist on our database already, I want to group these contacts onto one list. I deal with datasets that come from various non-CRM sources and are sent on an excel. I would like to be able to locate these contacts on the database and group them into one list.

Does anyone have any advice on the easiest way to do this please.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Declan

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  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Thanks Aric for your help.

  • Suggested answer
    Aric Levin Profile Picture
    Aric Levin 30,188 on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Hi Declan,

    I am not sure if you have also new contacts in the Excel spreadsheets, but you should categorize the lists that you are about to import.

    Add a field to each list/file that specifies Source (or something like that), and import it.

    My recommendation is to do this using an SSIS package with KingswaySoft CRM Connector (Free to run in Developer mode - within Visual Studio), and add a lookup to find the Guid of the contact you are going to update in crm based on the Customer Number.

    I think that this should be the simplest approach, since your lists don't have the GUID of the record that you are importing to.

    Let me know if this solution will work for you.

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Hi Alex, thanks for you reply. These contacts are on our CRM already, they are customers.

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Hi Aric, every contact has a customer number. 

    Basically I have list of contacts on an excel that I need as a list on CRM and am wondering how this can be achieved. The same contacts that are on the excel are also CRM but I need them grouped as per the list on excel. 

  • Aric Levin Profile Picture
    Aric Levin 30,188 on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    So, are you saying that some of the contacts will have a customer number and some will not?

  • ashlega Profile Picture
    ashlega 34,475 on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Hi Declan,

     how are you adding those contacts to CRM? Can't you create a new field, call it "from external list", and, then, just create a view in CRM that will show you all the contacts which are from the "external list"?

     Unless that's not what you are trying to do..

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Hi Aric, thanks for your reply.

    The grouping is for a variety of reasons: customer segment analysis, email/sms communciations etc and the source of the lists are a mix of reasons also, such as the risk department, customer feedback or third party transactional data.

    My logic by referring to the customer number is that I was hoping this be would the identifier of the contact and hence combine those contacts I have identified into one list. There isn't any search criteria I could use to recreate the same list without entering hundreds of customer numbers into the search logic.

  • Aric Levin Profile Picture
    Aric Levin 30,188 on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Hi Declan,

    I understand that you unique customer number is the way to identify them, but what is the grouping for?

    What exactly are you trying to achieve by grouping them?

    Is it so that you know the source of the customer (or something similar)

    It seems like Customer Number is just a way to unique identify the customer, but not in anyway going to assist you with grouping?

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    Thanks David for your reply. The only consistent field value is customer number which is unique to the contact. Some of the non CRM datasets would have 1,000s of contacts and I was looking for a way to upload a list of customer numbers and CRM would then add them to a marketing list for me.  

  • David Jennaway Profile Picture
    David Jennaway 14,063 on at
    RE: Grouping existing contacts to a list on Dynamics

    One option is to use a marketing list. If there are certain field values that distinguish these contacts, then you could use a dynamic marketing list. Otherwise, you could use a static marketing list, and add the contacts to it

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